Rediscovering Oregon - Part II

We usually wake up very late on Sundays. On one of the Sundays this June, as usual, we got up very late and as we finished our brunch, we sat down thinking what we ought to do for the rest of the day. We fiddled with our options and then settled on the option that we should, probably, go berry picking.

Beaverton has a lot of "U-pick" berry farms. I was excited as usual because picking berries with my own hands was something I hadn't done before. I got ready in minutes and by then, Abhay had settled on Hoffman Farm for our first time "Berry picking" adventure. We checked with them and confirmed that they were open for Raspberry and Strawberry picking. I was a little sad that they didn't have Cherry picking at the time. But, something was better than nothing. So, we decided to get to the place.

Hoffman Farm

Hoffman Farm proved to be considerably close to our house and we reached their by 4 in the evening. Thankfully, for us, the picking was open till 5:30. We saw the plants from a distance and rushed to the store to collect our baskets and get to the task. 

First, we went for Strawberry picking. Strawberry picking is a task since you need to pick them from the shrubs on the ground they grow on. We picked a few and ate a few more. :p No no, not stealthily. One is allowed to eat the fruit there and then pick some more for home for which one needs to pay by weight and it is comparatively cheaper than the stores.

Strawberry and Raspberry/Tayberry picking

As we picked strawberries, clicked photographs and filled our baskets, we moved on to raspberries. It was easy picking these because the plants were kind of climbers and hence we could easily pick the fruits off the fences they were clinging to. We found a lot of different coloured Raspberries and got confused why there were so many different colours. Thankfully, for us, a lady from the farm told us about each berry and told us that some were Tayberries, some were Yellow Raspberries and the others were the usual red coloured Raspberries. 

My-made Berry Jam :)

We filled about 2 baskets of fruits and headed to the store to bill our product. We then left for home with 2.5 pounds of berries for only two of us. We were so excited picking berries that we picked much more than we could finish. Just as we reached home, we saw the paper bag which had berries, and to our dismay, the berries had softened due to the heat inside the car and had become soggy. We cleaned the car and got the berries home and I cleaned and kept a few berries for eating as they were and with the others, I made berry jam so that we could enjoy it for very long and just today, we had toast with berry jam and let me tell you, it tasted delicious.

*As a part of Ultimate Blog Challenge !